Effectively and effeciently cleaning plugged or partially plugged conduit, pipe or assorted tubular members continues to be a major problem. Keeping industrial, commercial and residential piping clean and avoiding the problem of "streaking" or leaving an uncleaned or partially cleaned path is an ongoing concern which costs hundreds of millions of dollars annually in this country alone. Plugged residential piping is a nuisance and an inconvenience to the home dweller and can become costly if improperly handled. Plugged commercial and industrial piping is more than a nuisance or an inconvenience. Plugged commercial and industrial piping is costly in terms of lost production and lost profits to the company, lost or reduced wages to the workers and the costly expense of cleaning and maintaining the piping.
Of primary concern in the present invention is to provide a more efficient, less expensive, safer and easier to use system to clean and maintain the internal surface of industrial, commercial and residential piping.
It is, therefore, a feature of the present invention to provide a cleaning operation which is automatic and thereby reduces the cleaning time compared to prior manual cleaning techniques.
A feature of the present invention is to provide an independent set of controls for forward or backward speed, and rotational speed to control the size particles removed from the internal surface of the piping.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide a safer system of cleaning the interior surface of piping, in that the operator need not be in close proximity to the pipe opening or the rotating hose.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide a hydraulic, or other non-internal combustion, powered rotating device which can be safely used in hazardous or explosive environments, where an internal combustion engine could not safely operate.
Yet another feature of the present invention is to provide rotating, helical or screw-like insertion of the high pressure hose and biased cleaning nozzle into the pipe, which greatly reduces the amount of streaking on the interior surface of the piping.
Yet another feature of the present invention is to provide an internal pipe cleaning system which is light and portable permitting its use in many small, elevated or lowered work areas.
Still another feature of the present invention is to provide an internal pipe cleaning apparatus which can be used in piping of wide ranging diameters, with comparatively small water blast equipment.
Yet further, an additional feature of the present invention is to provide a safe internal pipe cleaning apparatus whereby, should the high pressure hose burst while inside the pipe or the biased cleaning nozzle become separated from the high pressure hose, the hose will not uncontrollably retreat from the piping.
Still another feature of the present invention is to convert the torque from the rotating hose into linear thrust, to thrust the high pressure hose forward or backward, and to use the same linear thrust to control the speed with which the high pressure hose and biased cleaning nozzle are inserted into the pipe.
Yet another feature of the present invention is to control the helical pitch at which the high pressure hose and biased cleaning nozzle are inserted into a pipe, to provide more efficient cleaning.
Another feature of the present invention is to employ a biased cleaning nozzle which is designed to press itself against the interior surface of the pipe to more effectively clean the interior surface and not attempt to position itself centrally within the pipe as do prior art nozzles.
Yet still another feature of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for cleaning the interior surfaces of pipe more effectively and more efficiently than other currently known devices.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for rotating a high pressure hose to be thrusted into a pipe for the purpose of cleaning the interior pipe surface, where the hose rotation apparatus remains relatively stationary during the thrusting of the high pressure hose and biased cleaning nozzle.
Still another feature of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for rotating a high pressure hose where the hose rotation apparatus does not require a linear path-way to move back and forth on, and where said hose rotation device may be vertically raised or lowered and contains a finite length of high pressure hose which is inserted into the pipe to effectively clean the interior surfaces of pipe.
Yet another feature of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for rotating a high pressure hose where the hose rotation apparatus includes a retractable or spring-operated spool which automatically retrieves the high pressure hose from the pipe after the cleaning is completed, obviating the need for the operator to manually pull the high pressure hose from the pipe.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent from the description, or maybe learned by practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention maybe realized by means of the combinations and steps particularly pointed out in the appended claims.